I'm a novice in the field of designing and have been designing since the past 12-14 months, I would like to add a new dimension to my designing skills and would like to go in for a Wacom tablet, however, I'm not able to decide as to which Wacom tablet would suit me best.
My criteria

Should last long and I shouldn't be needing an upgrade soon(8-10 months)

Budget is <$600

Please help me out here.

3 answers

You will have to compare the products yourself and see what best suits you (sensitivity, size, etc). You can go directly on the wacom website or here is a comparison link: http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/aboutgraphics/tp/graphicstablets.htm

Wacom's last a long time so I wouldn't worry about the "needing an upgrade soon" concern.

You sound pretty serious about it, but you don't say exactly what and how you draw which is an important consideration.

If you want to experiment at a relatively low cost start off with a Wacom Bamboo ($99), http://www.wacom.com/bamboo/ and move up to a big Wacom later if you find it suits you.

The big difference in the models is pressure sensitivity which gets into how and what you draw. The $99 Bamboo has pressure sensitive pen, the cheaper ones (pen/touch) are not. You probably do want a pressure sensitive model. Later you could upgrade to a large Intous4 (<$600) or Cintiq (the later certainly being out of your price range for now).

@JonBrown Thanks a lot for answering, I generally doodle a lot and design logos for companies and I'm based in India(Bangalore) where the only guys who sell it are the apple guys but they don't have it on display so I cannot play with it to see how it feels and figure out which one would suit me best. — mudflap about 8 years ago

You might call around the other Wacom dealers in Bangalore and see if any of them have them to see in store, but I don't know you'll really get a feel for working with a tablet without using it for hours in a production environment (hence the recommendation for a cheaper/smaller bamboo). With your budget though you could just go straight for a Large Intous4 and be very happy.
Wacom Dealers in Bangalore: http://www.wacom-asia.com/store/in/in009.html
— Jon Brown about 8 years ago